(2) Mechanical Material. The mechanical ma terial, formed (moulded, or arranged, as an ar tificer models clay or wax) into the human and all other animal bodies, is called 'dust from the ground.' This would be a natural and easy ex pression to men in the early ages, before chem istry was known or minute philosophical distinc tions were thought of, to convey, in a general form, the idea of earthy ,natter, the constituent substance of the ground on which we tread.
To say that of this the human and every other animal body was formed, is a position which would be at once the most easily apprehensible to an uncultivated mind, and which yet is the most exactly true upon the highest philosophical grounds. We now know, from chemical analysis, that the animal body is composed, in the inscrut able manner called organization, of carbon, hydro gen. oxygen, nitrogen. lime, iron, sulphur, and phosphorus. Now, all these are mineral sub stances, which in their various combinations form a very large part of the solid ground.
(3) Organic Life. The Hebrew expression, nephesh hhoya, living animal, sets before us the organic life of the animal frame, that mysterious something which man cannot create nor restore, which baffles the most acute philosophers to search out its nature, and which reason combines with Scripture to refer to one immediate agency of the Almighty--'in him we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts xvii :28).
But the Scripture account also declares that 'God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female, created he them' (Gen. i :27; t Cor. xi :7). The image, the resemblance (such as a shadow bears to the object which casts it) of God, is an expression which breathes at once a primitive simplicity and the most recondite wisdom; for what term could the most cultivated and copious language bring forth more suitable to the purpose? It presents to us man as made in a resemblance to the author of his being, a true resemblance, but faint and shadowy ; an outline, faithful according to a distant form of the intelligence, wisdom, power, rechtude, goodness, and dominion of the Adorable Supreme.
•I) Dominion. To the inferior sentient beings with which he is connected man stands in the place of God. We have every reason to think that none of them are capable of con ceiving a being higher than man. All, in their different ways, look up to him as their superior; the ferocious generally flee before bins, afraid to encounter his power. and the gentle court Inc pro tection and chow their highest joy to consist serving and pleasing him. Even in our degenerate state it is manifest that if we treat the domesti cated animals with wisdom and kindness, their attachment is most ardent and faithful.
Thus had man the shadow of the Divine dominion and authority over the inferior cre ation. The attribute of power was also given to him, in his being made able to convert the inani mate objects and those possessing only the vege table life, into the instruments and the materials for supplying his wants, and continually enlarging his sphere of command.
(5) Knowledge and Wisdom. In such a state of things knowledge and wisdom are implied ; the one quality, an acquaintance with those substances and their changeful actions which were necessary for a creature like man to understand, in order to his safety and comfort ; the other, such sagacity as would direct him in selecting the best objects of desire and pursuit, and the right means for attaining them.
(6) Moral Excellence. Above all, moral excel knee must have been comprised in this 'image of God;' and not only forming a part of it, but be ing its crown of beauty and glory. The Christian inspiration, than which no more perfect disclosure of God is to take place on this side of eternity, casts its light upon this subject; for the apostle Paul, in urging the obligations of Christians to perfect holiness, evidently alludes to the .endow ments of the first man in two parallel and mu tually illustrative epistles; `—the new man, re newed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him; the new man which, after [ Kara, according to] God, is created in righteousness and true holiness' (Col. iii :io; Eph. iv :24).
(7) Activity and Enjoyment. In this perfec tion of faculties, and with these high preroga tives of moral existence, did human nature, in its first subject, rise up from the creating hand. The whole Scripture narrative implies that this state of existence was one of correspondent activity and enjoyment. It plainly represents the Deity himself, or his direct representative, as conde scending to assume a human form and to employ human speech, in order to instruct and exercise the happy creatures whom (to borrow the just and beautiful language of the Apocryphal 'Wis dom') 'God created for incorruptibility, and made him an image of his own nature.' The noble and sublime idea that man thus had his Maker for his teacher and guide, precludes a thousand difficulties. It shows us the simple, direct, and effectual method by which the newly formed creature would have communicated to him all the intellectual knowledge, and all the practical arts and manipulations, which were needful and beneficial for him.